County Clerk: Longtime Congressman John Conyers Can't Be on the Primary Ballot

Rep. John Conyers, one of the longest-serving members of Congress, will have to run as a write-in candidate for his own re-election, if the final determination by the Wayne County Clerk's office survives an almost certain appeal. "I am bound by the current laws and statutes of the State of Michigan that set forth very specific and narrow instructions regarding candidate petitions and the authority of the County Clerk," Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett said on Tuesday afternoon, adding, that the petitions submitted by Conyers's campaign "are insufficient to allow his name to appear on the August 5, 2014 Primary Ballot."

The County Clerk's office indicated this as much last week in a preliminary report on the investigation into Conyers's signatures. Basically, one of the legislator's rivals for the Democratic nomination challenged the validity of the individuals circulating petitions for voter signatures. He needed 1,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot, and turned in 1,193. But least two of those people who collected those signatures were not registered voters the time the signatures were collected, meaning that under state law any valid signatures of voters they submitted are invalid. The deadline has passed for Conyers's campaign to collect and submit more signatures, so the Representative will have to appeal the clerk's findings. He has three days to submit an appeal to Michigan's Secretary of State, as WXYZ explained.

If Conyers is re-elected this year (he can still run as a write-in candidate for the primary, if his appeal fails), he'll be the longest-serving member of Congress. He is 84 years old.